The gastropub is coming to Midway

The Pickled Pig Pub is under construction on Route 1, in the space formerly occupied by The Captain’s Cottage in Harbor Square.

John Tracey, an attorney representing restaurant owners AIH Route One LLC, said The Pickled Pig will be a “gastropub.”

“Gastropub is on Wikipedia so it has to be a real word,” Tracey said.

Wikipedia defines gastropub as a “British term for a public house specializing in high-quality food, which is a step above the more basic ‘pub grub.’”

“It’s food that’s very good and is affordable,” Tracey said.

He said The Pickled Pig Pub is owned and operated by husband-wife business partners Doug and Lisa Frampton and Michael and Denise Stiglitz. The couples also own Pig + Fish, a Rehoboth Beach restaurant on Rehoboth Avenue, formerly the location of Sydney’s Blues & Jazz Restaurant.

Tracey said the partners purchased Sydney’s and continued operating under the name for a year before changing the name to Pig + Fish.

“Pig and Fish has been a very successful restaurant. The owners have more than 20 years of experience in the restaurant business,” said Tracey.

He said the Framptons and Steiglitzs began working in the restaurant business in Chicago. They also worked in Newark’s and Wilmington’s Iron Hill pubs before purchasing Sydney’s.
Gastropub – a combination of pub and gastronomy – was coined in 1991 when a couple of British restaurateurs opened a London pub called The Eagle.

Wikipedia says the concept arose from a conscious effort to create a “truly British culinary scene” promoting great food in well-loved places. Gastropubs have been described as the Anglo-equivalent of the French brasserie or the Japanese izakaya.

Tracey represents AIH Route One in its application for a state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission (ABCC) restaurant liquor license with Sunday liquor service for The Pickled Pig Pub.

The license would permit on-premises sales, service and consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Tracey said the ABCC has received no letters in opposition to the liquor license application.